T. describes some grammatical features of French newspaper headlines, to show how the headline code of French helps inform and orient the reader, and to describe how differences in headline practice between newspapers reflect the character of the papers. The underlying assumption is that a newspaper is a structured whole designed to help the reader make choices as to which news items to ignore, to sample, to skim, or to read thouroughly while constructing his or her own `personal newspaper' out of the texts available.